


Limit

by secretagentfan



Category: Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Genre: Character Analysis, F/F, Fluff and Humor, mentions of canon-typical drink spiking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28226223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentfan/pseuds/secretagentfan
Summary: Maybe nothing was wrong with Collette after all. Maybe she was just helping her friend sample experimental medicines in a totally normal way. Like friends do! Friendly!Collette might enjoy helping Marian a little too much, which is strange, because Marian's supposedly tricking her into it.Written for zweinai for RFSS2020
Relationships: Collette & Marian (Rune Factory), Collette/Marian (Rune Factory)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Limit

**Author's Note:**

> Boy do I like these gals. Marian's my favorite RF 3 character so I was thrilled be able to write something with her. I just love the silly ridiculousness of the whole Rune Factory 3 cast. They're all nuts and have such good, goofy, hearts. :)
> 
> HOPE YOU ENJOY.

Something was seriously wrong with Collette, and not just because she had drank some of Marian’s tea. That happened all the time. The problem was that it wasn’t an accident, anymore.

No. Now Collette wasn’t so much much _falling for_ Marian’s hide-experimental-medicine-in-her-tea trick so much as _stumbling headlong into it—_ led by her, stupid, stupid heart.

It was so easy, now, and so hopelessly rewarding during. Marian would always get this look on her face after she tried some new magic: her eyes would be so bright; her smile so wide. She’d lean in close— all focused— like however Collette was going to react would be the most important important part of her day.

Collette loved it, just a little bit. Collette loved it, just enough to tolerate the occasional explosion.

Or the occasional food poisoning.

Or the occasional sudden-bout-of-drowsiness.

Or the occasional—

That’s not the point. The point was, Collette tolerated all that, because something was wrong with her and she _loved_ Marian, or more importantly— loved and _trusted_ Marian not to take things too far.

When they were kids, Marian went too far.Just once. She’d accidentally hit Collette with a stray spell she’d been experimenting with in the square. Collette barely remembered the accident, but she certainly remembered how Marian acted afterward: shifting, guilt-trodden and awkward. After that, she’d stopped studying offensive magic altogether and started focusing on cure-alls.

Marian knew limits. She’d had to.

It was then where Collette learned how powerful Marian truly was— stronger even then Marjorie, but less controlled. The only way she’d ever learn to control herself was the way anyone learned how to improve a skill: training. Practice. Tests. And was that so different from Collette?

If nothing else, Collette understood having to work hard— to endure and learn and fail, fail, fail. The same way she had to learn new cooking methods; the same way she had to balance and practice and hone her craft— so did Marian.

It just was _harder_ for Marian to find people willing to help her, so she tricked them. Or maybe, Collette guessed, maybe Marian figured no one would willingly _want_ to help her to begin with, so she _had_ to trick them. Marian was a puzzle sometimes. But she needed a subject and, well, Collette didn’t mind really. Even before she’d caught feelings, she never really held Marian’s enthusiastic tests against her. She just never expected to…start to have fun with them.

But that was all Marian, right? Marian was just fun to be with.

She was a good person, after all.

Probably.

She was getting better, at least!

So, so, so maybe nothing was wrong with Collette after all. Maybe she was just helping her friend sample experimental medicines in a totally normal way. Like friends do! Friendly!

The last three times Marian gave her tea, nothing had happened. Nothing at all. Collette didn’t explode, or come down with a fever. Marian didn’t have to duck under her shoulder and carry her into the familiar bed of the clinic (that, Collette embarrassingly missed a little).It had been uneventful, but the look on Marian’s face was new. Thrilled. She had this brand-new sparkle in her eye, and it was laced with a sort of intentional pride this time. Like Marian wasn’t just throwing things at the wall anymore— like this time, she had a _plan_.

Collette smiled back, proud of her. Gentle Micah had been a good influence on her. On the whole town really.

“You feel any different, Collette?” Marian asked.

Collette paused, ran through her mental checklist after ingesting one of Marian’s concoctions. No fire. No smoke. Heart beating normally. Stomach— oh.

“I’m hungry,” Collette clarified, seriously.

Marian looked up from her notebook, she’d taken to using a notebook lately, it made her look serious _and_ pretty.

“You said that the last three times,” she replied, sticking her pen in her braid in order to use both hands to dig in her bag.

Collette was laughing noncommittally when Marian pulled out a rice ball. She lunged forwardpractically eating it out of her hand.

“Delicious!”

“Good!” Marian announced. “Back to business. How’s your vision?”

“Was…that on the line?“ Collette whispered, a little nervous.

Marian shrugged.

Oh. Well. “I think I can see just fine!”

“Any hair growth? Do you feel fluffy, or smaller?”

Collette blinked, slowly.“Hey Marian, what is this experiment for anyway?”

“I am so glad you asked! It’s nothing big,” Marian replied. “I’m going to turn you into a Wooly, Collette!”

“What!?” Collette stood up. “I don’t want to be a Wooly!”

“Well not forever,” Marian explained. “Then we couldn’t talk and that would be boring. Just for a few minutes.”

Well, a few minutes wasn’t _so_ bad… _WAIT._

“Why a Wooly? Can’t you just talk to Micah for that?”

“Micah is very busy with Pia, and besides, my motives are different. Transformation magic is unheard of, so I’m going to make it exist, and my subject has to be you Collette!”

Collette found her face heating. _Why_. She’d been flattered over stupider things, but still. What was wrong with her? Her heart was beating too fast, blood rushing to her head.

“Why me?”

“Because you’ll be cuter than Micah, of course. I can carry you around and squish your face.”

_Oh._ Collette thought, suddenly watching this moment from very, very far away. _Oh I wouldn’t mind that. At all._

“Collette?” Marian asked, standing up. She seemed nervous. It was really good look on her, Collette decided. Her pretty eyes were all wide. Pretty.

Marian was so…pretty…

“Hey, Collette!?”

Her legs felt weak, but Collette wasn’t scared.She just smiled, raised her hand in a thumbs up, and then promptly fainted.

* * *

Collette woke up in the familiar infirmary cot, the room smelling a little bit like hot chocolate. She wanted some. Sitting up, still woozy, she turned to Marian, who she knew would be sitting in the chair by her bedside.

“Hot chocolate please,” she said, blindly reaching out a hand to her friend. The mug met her hand automatically and Collette downed the warm liquid happily.

“Ah, so good! You can’t taste the medicine at all.”

“It’s actually just hot chocolate, this time,” Marian replied, an easy smile on her face.

“It’s really good, did you make it?”

“Yup,” Marian said, popping the ‘p’ on the end of her sentence. Something about that made Collette a little nervous. Not in a bad way.

“Oh, cool…” Collette mumbled. “That’s—”

“—Just like it was _just tea_ before.”

Silence.

“Huh…?” Collette stared, face rapidly getting more red. “But I fainted!”

“I know,” Marian said, now unable to keep the grin off her face. “You did faint, but there was nothing in the tea. I’m trying out some placebos, lately, but this time you overheated and passed out anyway— you convinced yourself to faint! Pretty weird, huh? Marjorie laughed at you a lot. ”

Oh, something was, so, so wrong with Collette. “Are…are you sure there wasn’t some accidental magic or something?”

“Pretty positive,” Marian replied, and Collette longed for the sweet embrace of death. She hadn’t meant to, it just sort of happened. Why was she like this?

“I am so sorry—”

“—You think I’m pretty?”

They spoke at the same time. Collette blinked, once. Twice. Not quite hearing it.

Marian repeated, slow, methodical. “Before you fainted, you said I was pretty. You think I’m pretty?”

Oh. Collette thought, dumbly. Well, guess it was all out now.

“Yup,” she said. Marian looked completely calm. There was a shine to her eyes that Collette loved. It was the same new light she was carrying the last few times they had tea. _Just_ tea, Collette realized.

It had just been tea. Marian knew it was _just tea,_ and she still looked like that, like she was having fun, like Collette was the most important…oh.

_Oh._

Now Marian was leaning forward and Collette was starting to think she knew where this was going, what could happen here, and she abruptly didn’t know what to do with her herself. Luckily, Marian wasn’t looking for guidance as she pressed a firm, warm, kiss to Collette’s lips.

Collette exploded.

Not physically, this time, though she probably shouldn’t think about it too hard, because if she was able to convince herself to pass out, who knows what else she was capable of? Her cheeks were burning, and her heart seemed to have transformed into some fluttery winged thing.

Marian’s lips were soft. Nice. Collette pressed back into them. Collette’s hands though— what to do with them? What did people do? Slowly, they fell into holding Marian’s warm, thin, shoulders. This was good. This was very good, actually.

Marian laughed a little, and Collette’s heart stopped shifting— it sang instead.

This was fun, actually.

Everything was always fun with Marian after all.


End file.
